Pentos

Pentos is one of the Free Cities, the nine great cities of western Essos. It is a port-city, found on the eastern coast of the Bay of Pentos.

Also considered within Pentoshi territory is the ruined city of Ghoyan Drohe. Given the city's long history as a centre of trade, the wealthy and powerful of the city are often heavily involved in mercantile actions.

Layout[]

The Port[]

Surrounded on three sides by massive stone walls populated by tall square towers, nearly all visitors to Pentos do so via the three main harbours.

The Magister's Harbour - Named for its close proximity to the most affluent part of the city, in which the manses of nearly all the magisters and wealthy merchants may be found, the Magister's Harbour is by far the most lavish, but not the largest. Maintained by an army of freebond servants and guarded by Unsullied Warriors, its boardwalks are carved from marble and populated with statues of gods and kings.
Singer's Wharf - The largest of the three harbours, Singer's Wharf is the main harbour used by merchants and travellers alike, and is capable of holding near three hundred vessels at full capacity. Located nearby are a great number of taverns and brothels, as well as the Prince's Market.
The Bronze Harbour - Home of the twenty warship-strong Pentoshi fleet permitted in their agreements with the city of Braavos, the Bronze Harbour is the smallest of the three main harbours.

The City[]

The Free City of Pentos is home to merchants and traders both great and small, seafarers and sailors, mummers and whores, and each are represented in some way within most of the city's many districts. Districts of particular note include:

The Golden District - Stretching across much of the northern and western parts of the city, the Golden District is home to the majority of the manses and solars of the Magisters of Pentos. Filled with sprawling gardens containing colourful flowers and shrubs from across the known world, and host to a melange of exotic fruit-trees the Golden District is a lavish display of the mercantile wealth of the Free City. Guards heralding from dozens of sellsword companies, now committed in service to a more stable, less cut-throat profession, patrol the marble streets, scrutinising those whom they believe do not belong in the District. Despite this apparent safety, nearly every manse is surrounded by walls of its own, though this may be to keep away prying eyes as much as keeping its contents and owners secure.
The Spice District - Containing the storehouses and merchant premises largely responsible for lifting the Free City from its days as a Valyrian outpost tended to primarily by farmers, the Spice District is located near the Singer's Wharf. Contained within the Spice District the remnants of the long officially outlawed slave trade still persists, and the associates and assistants of the city's magisters will often return, bringing with them freebond servants acquired from within.
The Merchant's Quarters - Whilst the Spice District is built upon history and tradition, the Merchant's Quarters changes with the turn of the months and years. Every moon a new trading organisation sets up headquarters within the district, only to depart the next, driving new construction and renovation at a rate unparalleled anywhere in the city. At its eastern edge, the Merchant's Quarters gives way to the sprawling Prince's Market.
The Plaza of Fountains - Overlooked by the looming palace in which the Prince of Pentos resides, the Plaza of Fountains is located roughly in the centre of the city. Some three-dozen pools and statues can be found within the square, of varying size and form. Amongst the fountains mummers perform shows in motley and costume, seeking the attention and coin of passersby.
The Prince's Market - According to citizens of Pentos, the Prince's Market is the largest and greatest singular market in the Known World and offers near everything to a visitors with the coinage. Spices from Qarth and the Far East, cages filled with deadly manticores, butterflies the size of a man's palm and small queer looking monkeys from the forested Kingdom of the Ifeqevron, bronze and iron helmets chased with precious stones, Myrish lens and fish caught fresh from the Bay, all can be found upon merchant stalls within the Prince's Market.
The Sunrise Town and Gate - On the eastern wall closest to the Rhoyne, the Sunrise Gate can be found, and serves as the primary land-based route for entrance into the city. Around the gate a number of shanties and huts have been built, stretching far from the walls themselves. Besides the occasional intervention to ensure the Sunrise Road remains unencumbered, the town has been largely allowed to proliferate out of control, and is now considered by many to be a district in its own right.

The Prince[]

The Prince of Pentos is a title bestowed to an individual chosen from the forty families of Pentos. At the start of each New Year, the Prince is responsible for deflowering the maidens of Sea and Field during the Festival of Prosperity. The role of Prince is bestowed upon the chosen individual without much autonomy, and carries a heavy cost. If the city finds itself in hard times, the Prince is executed as an appeasement to the gods, and a new one chosen in their place.

A full account of the Princes of Pentos can be found on the page, Princes and Archons, Magisters and Triarchs.

Timeline of Events[]

301AC - Selling food and weapons to Myrish, Tyroshi and Lyseni alike, the Magisters of Pentos grow ever richer.
302AC - After Lys announces its retraction from the campaign against Myr, Tyrosh is forced to stand its ground in the naval siege against Myr alone. They win a victory against the Wolves of the Wind at the Battle of Morning Wake, but are too forced into retreat at the Prince's Ploy, named for the Prince of Pentos who distracted Archon Tycho Mopyr from his battle plans with offers of trade. Whether this was a deliberate effort in aid of Myr or simply questionable timing remains a matter of contention.
309AC - Illyrio Mopatis draws his lickspittles and lackies to him, and uses his influence within the city of Pentos to rally the Prince to his cause. What exists of the Pentoshi fleet (greatly diminished from that of times past due to their agreement with the city of Braavos), he sails south to meet Daenerys within the Stepstones, along with the sellsail companies the Red Hands, the River Coppers and the Keepers of the Waves.
310AC - Marshalling her full strength, Daenerys Targaryen invades Westeros, bringing with her an army of Unsullied Warriors, slave soldiers from across the Bay of Dragons, dozens of sellsword companies and fleets from Qarth, Pentos and Volantis.
311AC - The manse of Illyrio Mopatis is raided by thieves, who find the residence abandoned, its riches stripped clean. In their anger, they raze the construction to the ground, but the fire spreads and would have caused much damage throughout the Golden District if not for the actions of the Iranhor family, who ordered their men to fight the blaze. While some question truly how selfless commanded others to die battling the fire truly is, they are considered highly among the other Magisters as a result.
314AC - Spread from sailors bound out of Lys, small outbreaks of Crimson Fever affect the Free Cities. Pentos suffers from small minor outbreaks that are quickly quelled through the actions of the Magisters and the Prince.
317AC - Khal Khoko demands tribute from the city of Pentos when his khalasar comes riding through the Velvet Hills. The Magisters pay him off with a wealth of silver, gold and bedslaves.
323AC - The Prince of Pentos dispatches the Brazen Titans, a sellsword company of some two thousand strong to investigate reports of a dragon in the Andalos foothills said to be preying on travellers and merchants and leaving naught but burned cloth, wood and bones. Curiously however, their investigations lead them to discover that all items of value are stripped from the fallen - and that true dragonflame would be capable of melting rings and bracelets to the flesh of a man. Concluding it is the work of men, not a great beast, they scour the Velvet Hills but find nothing of the supposed bandits.
324AC - New reports of attacks similar to that of the year before start to reach the Magisters of Pentos and Myr, but are now taking place along the Trader's Road between the two cities. The Brazen Titans are dispatched once more, where they find greater success. Capturing the bandit captain and forcing him to reveal the location of his trove through methods crude and vicious, they managed to retrieve half of that stolen - the rest already spent on wine and whores alike. The Brazen Titans are granted 10% of the retrieved items as part of their reward, and the bandit Nakado and his men are burned alive in a great pyre shaped like a dragon.
329AC - A company of sellswords find a horde of treasure within the ruined city of Ghoyan Drohe, and quickly turn on each other fighting over the choicest items. Travellers find the grisly scene left in their wake, and find evidence that the riches once belonged to Illyrio Mopatis, the Pentoshi Magister who was mobbed in the street when he tried to return to the Free City after the defeat of the Dragon Queen in the War of the Exiles.
372AC - Myr and Pentos are blessed with a marriage quite unlike any other within recent memory when the Prince of Pentos, a comely youth from the Iranhor family is wed to the daughter of arguably the most famous Myrish family, the Drahars. Dubbed the Sapphire Wedding for the silk ribbons and gemstones laden within the hair of Erinela Drahar, the celebrations lasted for the entirety of a moon, involving tens of thousands of participants.
374AC - Pentos is still considered the wealthiest of the Free Cities, ignoring the juggernauts of Volantis and Braavos. Boasting vast trading connections with all aspects of Westeros, the Free Cities to the north, south and east of it by sea and land alike, and lands further still, the three harbours of Pentos are a continuous hub of activity. With wealth has come those seeking to prosper from it. Many among them however have found naught for them in Pentos beyond a boisterous life as residents of the Sunrise Town, the population of which has swollen in the last half century. Where the Town was once nothing more than a few hovels for travellers not wishing to enter the city, as of 374AC three of every ten residents of Pentos call it their home.